In the push and pull over whether NFL fields will be covered with high-quality grass, a global solution is possible, albeit unlikely, through collective bargaining. For now, the decisions will be made one team at a time — especially as new stadiums are built.
The Bills decided to convert from turf to grass in their new stadium. The Chiefs, who are in the process of building a new domed stadium in Kansas, prefer to continue to play on grass, but no decision has been made.
The Browns are also building a covered stadium, in suburban Brook Park. They currently play on grass. Per the team, the Browns will play on artificial turf in the new stadium.
That said, the new stadium will have the ability to accommodate grass, which happens most often when a venue hosts soccer matches. Which means that, in theory, the artificial turf for NFL games could eventually be swapped out for grass.
For now, the plan is artificial turf. Which will tip the current 16-16 balance of teams playing homes games on real grass and fake grass toward turf, 17-15.
Unless, of course, owners of teams that play on turf decide to switch to grass. Starting with the incoming owners of the Seahawks, possibly.
Seahawks Clips
The Seahawks added depth at linebacker on Saturday by signing Joseph Vaughn, the team announced.
In a corresponding move, the Seahawks waived linebacker Ja’Markis Weston with an injury designation.
Vaughn went undrafted out of UCLA in 2025, signing with the Colts. He spent camp with Indianapolis before the team waived him before the start of the season.
The Colts signed him to a futures contract after the season but waived him this spring.
In 2024 at UCLA, Vaughn appeared in 12 games in his one season with the Bruins. He totaled eight tackles.
Before his time in Los Angeles, Vaughn played three seasons at Yale. He was a two-time All-Ivy League selection, including first-team honors in 2023.
Weston, who signed to the Seahawks’ practice squad late last season, would revert to Seattle’s injured reserve list if he clears waivers.
Seahawks receiver Tory Horton, a fifth-round pick in 2025, had a solid start to his career, before an injury ended his rookie season.
As it turns out, the injury was a fractured shin — one that Horton managed to play through for several weeks.
“About Week Three, I started feeling my shin and worked through it through a couple games,” Horton told reporters on Friday. “Got to Week 9, got it checked up and found out there was a crack. Ended up getting surgery on it and that was that. Something that you work through until you can’t. It’s not something that I wish happened but it did and we got the issue solved and the leg isn’t going anywhere now. I feel good.”
His last 2025 appearance happened against the Commanders. Horton caught four passes for 48 yards and two touchdowns in the 38-14 win on the road.
“It didn’t feel as bad as it got until after the Washington game,” Horton said. “Those couple weeks before, building up, there was always a little something there that I felt and over the weeks it got worse. I finally took the time to get it checked out and that’s when we found out.”
Eventually, the decision was made to operate.
“I did have surgery,” Horton said. “I have a metal rod in there so the leg isn’t going anywhere.”
Horton’s return makes the passing game even more potent, especially with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and Rashid Shaheed on the depth chart.
Veteran defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins has hung up his cleats.
Hankins, 34, told Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report that he is retiring after 12 seasons.
Hankins did not play for the Seahawks last season, going on the non-football injury list after injuring his back in the 2025 offseason. The Seahawks released him from NFI on Dec. 3, and he has been a free agent since.
He signed with Seattle in 2024 and appeared in all 17 games with eight starts. In what turned out to be his final season, Hankins recorded 30 tackles, with five tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and a sack. He also made the first interception of his career.
A second-round pick of the Giants, he also played for the Colts, Raiders and Cowboys.
Hankins appeared in 169 career games and was among the league’s premier run-stuffing interior defensive linemen, with 433 tackles, including 44 for loss.
The Seahawks activated rookie defensive tackle Deven Eastern from the active/physically unable to perform list on Thursday after he passed a physical, the team announced.
The Seahawks made Eastern a seventh-round pick out of the University of Minnesota, the 242nd overall choice.
He missed much of the offseason program with an undisclosed injury.
Eastern will compete for a roster spot at nose tackle, with Brandon Pili the only true nose tackle on the roster. Jarran Reed and Byron Murphy II also play the position.
Defensive back Nick Emmanwori and running back Zach Charbonnet are the only players the Seahawks have left on PUP.
The Seahawks signed wide receiver Kyre Duplessis on Wednesday, the team announced.
The Seahawks had an open roster spot after waiving Kenny McIntosh on Monday.
Duplessis was an undrafted free agent who briefly was on the Lions’ 90-player roster.
He played at Delaware in 2025, recording 60 catches for 824 yards and five touchdowns. Duplessis spent four seasons at Coastal Carolina before transferring to Delaware.
He made 23 receptions for 348 yards for the Chanticleers.
The Seahawks are working out free agent safety Donovan Wilson on Wednesday, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
Wilson, 31, spent seven seasons in Dallas, and Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde was on the Cowboys staff from 2021-23.
The Cowboys drafted Wilson in the sixth round in 2019.
He started 75 games, including 15 last season, and has totaled eight interceptions, 19 pass breakups, nine forced fumbles, 13 sacks and 20 tackles for loss in his career.
In 2025, he recorded two interceptions, five pass breakups, one forced fumble and three tackles for loss.
The Seahawks have some uncertainty regarding safety Nick Emmanwori’s availability for Week 1. He is on active/physically unable to perform after undergoing ankle surgery earlier this month.
Jalen Carter agreed to a new deal with the Eagles this week that will make him the highest-paid defensive tackle in the league and that development is of interest to plenty of people outside of Philadelphia.
One interested party could be found in Seattle. Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams is heading into the final year of his current deal, which has an average annual salary of $21.5 million. That ranks 14th at the position for a player who was a second-team All-Pro last season.
Williams might not jump back to the top of the heap at this point in his career, but he said Tuesday that he’s had “a few conversations” with the team about extending his stay in Seattle. Williams said he’s doing his best to keep those conversations from impacting his preparation for the season.
“I try not to think about it, honestly,” Williams said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN.com. “I’ve always been that type of guy. I’ve obviously had a lot of contracts at this point in my career, and I’ve always noticed players that really focus on their contract end up not playing well, they end up having their head in the wrong place, and I’ve noticed that when I focus on just being where I’m at, focusing on my team and how I can get better individually, things always tend to work themselves out.”
The Seahawks are also talking contract with cornerback Devon Witherspoon, so there could be multiple contract announcements in the near future if all goes well for two of their top defensive players.
The NFLPA’s P.R. push for grass fields should focus less on making a broad-brush effort to shame the owners into choosing a better surface and more on getting specific teams to flip. That effort, as previously explained, should start with the Seahawks, who are in the process of getting a new owner.
On Tuesday, a pair of Seattle veterans made the case for grass during training-camp press conferences.
Defensive lineman Leonard Williams was asked whether seeing temporary grass at Lumen Field for the World Cup made him wish the grass would remain permanently.
“For sure,” Williams told reporters, “I think the whole NFL felt that way. We obviously prefer to be on grass. It’s less impact, better on the body. I understand there’s a lot of things that go into having grass in the stadium that I don’t fully understand yet, but if it was up to a player and it just came down to grass or turf, we obviously prefer grass.”
Receiver Cooper Kupp was initially more concise. “That would be sweet,” he said with a laugh.
Why the laugh? “It would be awesome,” Kupp said. “I’ve been vocal about it in the past. There’s so many moving parts, which I get. What we need to do -- there’s a great crew that works out in that shed out there. It’s a great crew that keeps this [practice field] grass nice. Go ask them, ‘Hey, what would it look like?’ I don’t know the ‘grassology’ of all that stuff. You got soccer teams playing on it, you have a lot of stuff happening. You have events being hosted. I would like to think with all the resources in the NFL that we can make that happen. There’s people that can make that happen. We need to, as players, keep voicing what we want and what we think is important, but eventually I do think it’ll get done.”
The best place to start would be in Seattle.
“It makes a huge difference,” Kupp said regarding the difference between grass and artificial turf. “I know all the metrics and all the data that say the injury rates of this, but I don’t know. I know how I feel. You ask a lot of players who will say the same thing. Whether injury rates change or not, I know how my body feels, everything on turf versus grass. You can ask coaches how their backs feel after standing on the turf versus grass. Coaches have a lot of other issues. But it does make a difference. . . .
“It’s possible. I know it’s possible. It’s a conversation that needs to continue.”
At some point, the conversation needs to become action. It has become a Collective Bargaining Agreement issue, which means that the players will have to give something up in order to get grass on all fields. But the individual teams can still choose grass over turf, like the Bills have done in their new stadium.
With the Seahawks soon having a new owner, why not launch a concerted effort to get Vinod Khosla to install a high-quality grass field that can be properly maintained and protected during the other events held at Lumen Field?
Talk is cheap. Grass fields aren’t. The players need to find a way to get more owners to ignore misleading injury data and to focus on the overwhelming anecdotal evidence that the players who have to perform on grass or turf strongly prefer grass because of how their bodies feel after playing on it, versus how they feel after playing on a surface that causes the extreme forces they create to ricochet back into their ankles, knees, and hips.
The Seahawks plan to waive running back Kenny McIntosh, Brady Henderson of ESPN reports.
McIntosh currently is on the active/physically unable to perform list. He tore the ACL in his left knee during a training camp practice 366 days ago.
The Seahawks made McIntosh a seventh-round pick in 2023, and he injured his knee in his first training camp. He played only 13 special teams snaps in three games as a rookie.
In 2024, McIntosh appeared in every game, playing 75 offensive snaps and 173 on special teams. He rushed for 172 yards on 31 carries and caught three passes for 22 yards, while returning six kickoffs for 153 yards.
The Seahawks drafted Jadarian Price in the first round and signed Emanuel Wilson in free agency. Eventually, Zach Charbonnet will return from his torn ACL.
UPDATE 10:30 P.M. ET: The Seahawks have announced the move.
